Investing in community strengths for positive outcomes

Our Experts

The JANUS Team

Tom BlatnerPresident and FounderThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

As President and CEO of JANUS Solutions, Tom has led numerous strategic planning and management assistance projects in thirteen states, fourteen of New Jersey’s twenty-one counties and several of its major cities, including initiatives with former Newark Major and now NJ Senator, Cory Booker.

Tom leads JANUS Solutions with the kind of strategic vision that has characterized all his work. The architect of the JANUS team’s “Family Success platform” of services and initiatives, Tom brings to the company’s efforts his lifelong passion for transforming systems to create better opportunities for children, families and their communities.

Tom has held a variety of key governmental positions and has implemented major systems reforms primarily in the areas of children and family services, welfare reform and behavioral health. He is a respected authority on all areas of service delivery and has been a member of the Human Services Transition Teams for the last four New Jersey governors. His public sector professional experiences include serving as Director of the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services, the state’s child welfare agency. In this role he implemented a comprehensive restructuring of the entire state-operated child welfare system around a unified, three-tiered continuum of child protection, family preservation and support, and prevention.

Tom also established and served as Director of the Office of Policy, Planning and Advocacy in the New Jersey Department of Human Services. He was responsible for redesigning and restructuring services and personnel policies and assignments for that Department. As the Director of Policy and Planning for the Department of Human Services, he also created the County Human Service Advisory Councils, local planning bodies dedicated to identifying and meeting the needs of individuals and families within their communities.

Tom began his New Jersey government career at the Division of Mental Health and Hospitals, first as Assistant Director and then as Deputy Director and Chief Operational Officer. An ardent advocate of change, Tom designed and implemented reform of the adult and children’s’ mental health system around a community-based, unified service model, including the expansion of community support services and the restructuring of state psychiatric hospitals, which he supervised. Tom was also responsible for the regulation of the county-operated hospitals. In addition, he served as the Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Corrections for Juvenile Services before leaving state service to start JANUS Solutions in 1988.

Along with his professional work, Tom has served on numerous advisory groups at the state level and has enjoyed positive working relationships with key federal, state and local officials. He holds a BA from Colgate University with a major in political science, and a Master’s degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

A member of the JANUS team since 1999, Gena brings over 35 years of direct service and public policy experience to our consultancy. She is a skilled planner, administrator, manager, trainer, group facilitator, community developer and strong advocate for children and families.

Gena provides leadership for many JANUS projects in workforce development, vulnerable populations and strategic planning. She has led projects with the Hudson County Departments of Family Services and Corrections and the Essex County Workforce Investment Board and Hospital Center. On the national level, Gena has led our work with the State of Delaware ABC Welfare Reform Initiative and the National Comprehensive Center for Fathers.

As an expert in human services and management, Gena also provides strategic leadership and expertise on the children, youth, and family initiatives led by JANUS Solutions, including the Community Planning and Advocacy Council and the United Way of Greater Union County.

For over 25 years, Gena has served in key management positions in government. Beginning as a case worker for the Division of Youth and Family Services and later a supervisor, she also worked as Special Assistant to the Commissioner of the NJ Department of Human Services, where she was charged with the hands-on implementation of key state initiatives. She served as state Project Manager for the federal Family Preservation and Support Services Initiative, and as the Director of Planning and Program Development for the NJ Division of Youth and Family Services. Gena also led the Foster Care Improvement Project, a major departmental initiative to improve the quality of the state foster care system.

Gena is a licensed social worker and holds a Masters degree in social work from Rutgers University, where she also serves as adjunct professor, focusing on direct practice and community organization skill development for graduate level students. She has presented at numerous conferences on the local, state and national levels.

“In such a changing world, clear thinking, clear values and clear decisions make all the difference.”